DW 7x02: as I understand it

[jedi_of_urth]

So I don’t know much about this week’s DW, but here’s what I gather.

DW 7x02, according to others

-It was either really good, really meh, or not very good. I really can’t get a handle on how y’all felt about it.

-Apparently the Ponds are now officially only companions when Eleven feels like showing up. Also apparently there’s no trace of last week’s problems that almost lead to them splitting up.

-It also sounds like the show was way more interested in the one shot characters than the regulars, that’s pretty standard for the show these days I guess.

-It sounds like Chibbers was taking a hint from the criticism hurled at THE/CB, at least the sexist undertones of it the people called him on but don’t call Moff on, and tried to write the ladies better. Without seeing it I’m hesitant to say I think he succeeded, but it sounds like he was trying.

-Apparently the Doctor kills people now. Yes Mr. Choose-someone-who-never-would (as much as I didn’t quite buy that either) now decides to be the law, and it might have even been treated as a cool or necessary thing rather than an awful thing he was doing by acting like that. Even writing that makes me miss Rusty.

-While there was finally an actual appearance by a companion’s family member it sounds like the show has abandoned its tie to contemporary Earth. There’s a part of me that could almost approve of that since it was getting ridiculous that the world wasn’t radically changing thanks to what happened with the Doctor in their efforts to keep it as the world next door, but at the same time that tie was sort of an important tie back when this show...mattered...was good.

-...there were dinosaurs...on a spaceship. It occurs to me I haven’t heard much about the actual plot.

Comments

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

For me the episode wasn't very good. It lacked actual plot and the dinosaurs only seemed to be there because someone thought it was a cool idea. This episode takes place ten months after Asylum; it's implied that the Doctor is trying to break away and make it less painful. However, I took it badly when Eleven implied that Amy and Rory were more important than past Companions, because he really only goes back to visit them.

The episode was more interested in the one-shot characters than the Ponds or even Rory's dad. Which is a shame because the guy was like a cartoon cliche from the 1930s (sexists and all about big game hunting and flirting) and the woman was poorly acted.I think he was trying to make the ladies cooler and more important, but it didn't really work.

Apparently the Doctor kills people now. Yes Mr. Choose-someone-who-never-would (as much as I didn’t quite buy that either) now decides to be the law, and it might have even been treated as a cool or necessary thing rather than an awful thing he was doing by acting like that. Even writing that makes me miss Rusty.

Pretty much, yeah. Eleven decides to basically kill someone who had killed a whole race. Yes, well. . .Eleven has been established as non violent. As someone who does not kill; he doesn't even like weapons. But, he indirectly killed someone this week.

Moffat's idea of a Companion seems to be that this person must be there as a tool for the Doctor; must live for the Doctor. I think it's annoying, because that means character development can come and go. Plus, I enjoyed seeing the Companions (Rose, Mickey, Martha, Donna) as real people with real ties to their time and lives.

[jedi_of_urth]

I choose to think Eleven is totally stalking Rose and just won't tell anyone about it. But then I'm more than a little biased to think that.

Eleven has been established as non violent. As someone who does not kill; he doesn't even like weapons.

From what I understand he also brainwashed the entire human race to kills aliens for him last season, so I'm not entirely surprised that he'd take to killing. I just...I miss my Doctor even just what I hear about Eleven anymore.

The weird thing about you describing the companions as tool of the Doctor these days is that they aren't actually there to help the Doctor as a character (but then...that would imply the Doctor is a character any more and not just a collection of personality quirks so maybe it shouldn't be surprising). The RTD companions were in part tools to help explore the Doctor as a person in addition to being their own characters; Moff's companions are none of those things.

[haro.livejournal.com]

Yeah I have to agree that I don't buy that Eleven has been established as non-violent.

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

Not so much brainwashed as 'woke up'. It was the Silence. They were "religious order or movement" led by an alien race. They had basically been manipulating Earth for years.

Before the human race would see them and than forget them the moment they turned away or blinked. Now they kill them and then forget it. (Though River did rewrite history and make an alternative universe in order to stop the Doctor's death - nearly destroying time and space - because she didn't want the Doctor to die. So, who knows if that's still a thing?)


The RTD companions were in part tools to help explore the Doctor as a person in addition to being their own characters; Moff's companions are none of those things.

You have a valid point. As much as I really do like Rory and Amy, I don't feel like I know them outside of their relationship and the Doctor.

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the plot (via wikipedia)

When in 1334 B.C. Egypt with Queen Nefertiti, the Doctor receives a call from the Indian Space Agency in 2367 A.D. about a spaceship which will crash into Earth in six hours; if it is not stopped, they will fire missles to destroy it before it crashes into earth. Taking Nefertiti with him, he picks up Edwardian explorer John Riddell from the African plains in 1902 A.D., and his companions Amy and Rory ten months after he last saw them in "Asylum of the Daleks", accidentally taking Rory's father Brian on the TARDIS as well. They land on the spaceship and come face-to-face with ankylosaurus dinosaurs. The Doctor uses the ship's computer to locate the engines, accidently transporting him, Rory, and Brian to the engine room, which appears to be a beach.


The Doctor and his companions discover that the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period. After escaping from a group of pterodactyls, the Doctor, Rory, and Brian are escorted by two robots to a human called Solomon who was injured in a raptor attack, believing the Doctor to be of the medical type. Solomon reveals himself as a exotic black market trader, who believes everything and everyone has a price, though is surprised that the Doctor is not listed in his system. Solomon had boarded the spaceship and killed its inhabitants in order to sell the dinosaurs on board, and now threatens the Doctor into repairing his legs and into giving him Queen Nefertiti after seeing her value.


Missiles are fired from Earth to stop the ship from crashing. The Doctor disables Solomon's robots and rescues Nefertiti before he tricks the missiles into targeting Solomon's ship and detaching it from the Silurian ark, whereupon the missiles destroy his ship, taking Solomon with it. Meanwhile, Rory and Brian pilot the ark away from the Earth, as the ship can only be piloted by two people of the same gene pool.


The Doctor then takes the Ponds back home after letting Brian view the Earth from orbit. The Doctor leaves Nefertiti with Riddell in the African plains in 1902 A.D. The episode ends after showing that Brian Williams has now taken to travelling across the planet and that the dinosaurs now reside on the planet Siluria.

[jedi_of_urth]

Well that description doesn't make it sound very good. But then a lot of my favorite episodes (certainly some of my favorite shows) wouldn't necessarily sound good in write up either so I'll only partially judge the episode for how it sounds there.

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

A plot? What's that? XD
It was very... meh. Not worth watching, really :(

[karenor.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I liked this episode very much. Waaaaay better than the week before. It had everything that is good about Doctor Who, and very little of what is bad about newer NuWho.

Except the killing thing. That bugged me.